Six Spanish cities: Smaller locales off the beaten path offer enchanting history, architecture

When you think of Spanish cities, you might think first of Madrid and Barcelona. They are the largest, and some might say the most important cities in Spain. They both have a lot to offer visitors.

Madrid is the capital, and is worth going to for the Prado alone. This art museum houses amazing treasures by Spanish artists such as Goya, El Greco, Velazquez as well as other European greats from Medieval times through the 18th century.

Barcelona is considered the capital of the Catalonia region and also offers striking examples of architecture and culture.

But there are other Spanish cities that may not come as readily to mind. They are smaller, sometimes off the beaten path. They intrigue and enchant in myriad ways. These are my six favorite cities in Spain:

Santiago de Compostela: City of pilgrims

In 850 A.D., a hermit had the good fortune of discovering the burial site of St. James the apostle. Actually, fortune may have had nothing to do with it; he said angels told him the location and a celestial pillar of light led him to the exact place.

No matter that James was said to have been beheaded by Herod in 44 A.D. His presence in Spain is easily explained. James is credited with evangelizing the Iberian peninsula, so it should be his final resting place. After his death the other apostles simply put his body in a boat, and Providence directed it to town of Padron, where the townsfolk buried it inland, in the Field of Stars (Campus Stellae).

It is a lovely account, and it explains why pilgrims have been coming to Santiago de Compostela ever since, as increasingly bigger shrines were built over the gravesite. They came for devotion, for spiritual favors, to fulfill a vow, to atone for sin, on behalf of others. And their coming has made it so.

The present cathedral, about the third or fourth on the site, is 11th-century Romanesque and later Baroque, with one of the most impressive facades in all of Spain. It is an elegant, commanding presence in the Plaza del Obradoiro square.

Inside, there are many places for simple expressions of faith: a place with five holes where pilgrims can put five fingers and make five wishes; a statue of the architect that they can bump with their heads three times and gain wisdom and understanding; a statue of St. James that they embrace around the neck from behind. Long lines wait to do that.

In the basement is the silver coffin that contains the sacred bones.